The Truth Behind Conspiracy Theories in Metal

“Did you know Marilyn Manson had a rib removed so he could perform fellatio on himself?” “Did you know Ozzy Osbourne sacrifices live animals at his concerts?” “Did you know that KISS are Satanists and KISS stands for Knights in Satan’s Service?”

Chances are you’ve heard these conspiracy theories in the past, but they’re 100 percent false. Whether pre-Internet or at the height of social media, bad information tends to spread like the plague, so with this video, we’re helping put the false stories to bed while explaining where some of them may have come from.

Likely inspired by an iconic scene in The Exorcist, one of the most famous conspiracy theories to come out of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s is that metal bands hide backwards messages on their albums to brainwash their listeners.

Religious groups freaked out over supposed backmasking in Led Zeppelin and Queen albums, while Judas Priest were actually taken to court after a fan’s suicide. Prosecutors argued that the subliminal message “do it” was placed in the song “Better by You, Better than Me.” While on the stand, Rob Halford argued the absurdity of the case by showing the judge other “subliminal messages” that could be found in Judas Priest’s music.

But, in the sake of fairness, some conspiracies (albeit very few of them) do end up being proven correct. For writing anti-war songs and meeting with anti-war activists, John Lennon was placed under surveillance by the FBI, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service even tried to deport him. In 2010, the CIA publicly released documents which showed that fearing he would disrupt the 1972 Republican convention, the CIA under the Nixon administration joined the FBI in gathering intelligence on the Beatles icon.